Ontogeny of prosocial behavior across diverse societies

Bailey R House; Joan B Silk; Joseph Henrich; H. Clark Barrett; Brooke A Scelza; Adam H Boyette; Barry S Hewlett; Richard McElreath; Stephen Laurence

doi:10.1073/pnas.1221217110

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Ontogeny of prosocial behavior across diverse societies

Journal article

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Ontogeny of prosocial behavior across diverse societies

Bailey R House, Joan B Silk, Joseph Henrich, H. Clark Barrett, Brooke A Scelza, Adam H Boyette, Barry S Hewlett, Richard McElreath and Stephen Laurence

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.110(36), pp.14586-14591

09/03/2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221217110

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https://hdl.handle.net/2376/110313

PMCID: PMC3767518

PMID: 23959869

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Abstract

Biological Sciences

development

Social Sciences

gene-culture coevolution

population differences

Humans are an exceptionally cooperative species, but there is substantial variation in the extent of cooperation across societies. Understanding the sources of this variability may provide insights about the forces that sustain cooperation. We examined the ontogeny of prosocial behavior by studying 326 children 3–14 y of age and 120 adults from six societies (age distributions varied across societies). These six societies span a wide range of extant human variation in culture, geography, and subsistence strategies, including foragers, herders, horticulturalists, and urban dwellers across the Americas, Oceania, and Africa. When delivering benefits to others was personally costly, rates of prosocial behavior dropped across all six societies as children approached middle childhood and then rates of prosociality diverged as children tracked toward the behavior of adults in their own societies. When prosocial acts did not require personal sacrifice, prosocial responses increased steadily as children matured with little variation in behavior across societies. Our results are consistent with theories emphasizing the importance of acquired cultural norms in shaping costly forms of cooperation and creating cross-cultural diversity.

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Title: Ontogeny of prosocial behavior across diverse societies
Creators: Bailey R House - Department of Anthropology
Joan B Silk - School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Joseph Henrich - Departments of Psychology and Economics
H. Clark Barrett - Department of Anthropology
Brooke A Scelza - Department of Anthropology
Adam H Boyette - Department of Anthropology
Barry S Hewlett - Department of Anthropology
Richard McElreath - Department of Anthropology
Stephen Laurence - Department of Philosophy
Publication Details: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.110(36), pp.14586-14591
Academic Unit: Anthropology, Department of
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
Identifiers: 99900547390001842
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article